MST spoke to Fred R. today and posted the following on Yahoo! ASTN thread. I am reposting it here for your info. It is in regards to the start date of VTS in July....
FWIW - I spoke with Fred Rittereiser a few minutes ago. He indicated that, ultimately, it is
the PHLX that will set the launch date for VTS, and that, to his knowledge, it has not been
officially set yet (not at 7/12, at 7/1, or at 7/6 for that matter, which is the first business day
after 7/4). He indicated that ATG will be ready to go with VTS on July 1, but that if the PHLX
sets the date at 7/12 (which he insisted is not yet known), ATG will launch VTS on 7/12. He
also indicated that he does not expect any delay past 7/1, if there is one, to be lengthy -- just
a matter of the PHLX coordinating its own act in the logistics of connecting to and operating
its end of the system. And he indicated, FWIW, that there is (or should be) no negative
connotation to be derived from a brief delay, since ATG is ready to go now (much less 7/1)
and none of this is emanating from the SEC.
Frankly, in the greater scheme of things, if having more PHLX brokers connected to the
system at the launch date (and I infer that this is what Fred meant by the "logistics of
connecting to and operating within the system" -- NOTE: THIS IS MY INFERENCE!!)
occurs at the cost of a 5-10 trading day delay, then the "harsh treatment" of ATG's stock price
will be particularly short lived. I cannot decide for anybody else what they want to do -- the
same people (be they daytraders, market makers, or others) who caused the price of ASTN to
spike to 18 on little more than a Reuters story regarding a possible merger between the NYSE
and the PHLX (one that I admittedly thought might have something to it -- and still do) were
probably bailing over the past week at the lack of news and (today) at the prospect of a brief
delay. I say "F**k 'em". I am not a seller at 12 7/8 -- I believe in what ATG is doing, and am
satisfied that their "execution" does NOT suck -- but as I said, everybody must make their
own decisions and draw their own conclusions. (Sidebar: I did convert my 1900 IRA warrants
today back into 1000 shares of common stock when the spread between the stock and the
warrants narrowed to just over $4 briefly, so that I am back to 68,000 shares of common and
10,000 warrants, with $3,000 extra in the IRA account, as a result -- BFD, as they say, but
truthful disclosure is important to maintain my personal integrity).
I suspect we will not know the final VTS launch date until it is set by PHLX, but I personally
believe that it is imminent (e.g., in July). As I have taken to saying in recent posts, this is not
intended as investment advice, but rather to set the record straight and to provide my own
personal analysis (especially since I was the person who previously communicated Fred's
statement to me that July 1 was the date). Fred reiterated to me that ATG is fully ready,
willing and able to launch VTS on July 1, and he does not rule out the possibility that it still
may happen on that day -- but clearly he was saying that the PHLX will set the date, and
ATG will support them when they do.
MST
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